Moments in Time
by Allie Bird
Summary: She is a girl who always has to have a plan. He is a boy who lives in the moment. But somehow, they make it work. Snapshots of the lives of Kat and Patrick.


**Summary**: She is a girl who always has to have a plan. He is a boy who lives in the moment. But somehow, they make it work. Snapshots of the lives of Kat and Patrick.

**Note**: Here are twenty-five Katrick drabbles that I scribbled out while sick in bed. I wrote them intending for them to be connected, however, if you prefer to think that they're not, that's fine. I appreciate reviews a lot, and tell me which one was your favorite!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything, and if I did… wow, would I give ABC Family a piece of my mind!

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_Moments in Time_

_Fire_

She has her suspicions that the intense heat she had felt during their first kiss had nothing to do with the fire blazing around them.

_Motorcycle_

His motorcycle scares the crap out of her, she'll admit. She's heard plenty of stories about horrific crashes involving motorcycles. However, sitting behind him with adrenaline from walking out of school pumping through her, that bulky helmet on her head, and her arms wrapped around his stomach, she's never felt so safe.

_Warmth_

She can't sleep. His body is prone beside her, on _her_ bed, nonetheless. She can feel the warmth of his body radiating towards her, and it's _intoxicating_…

_Shadows_

They are both stuck in the shadows.

She is in the shadow of her sister, the beautiful, bubbly, blonde one who everyone loves.

He is in the shadow of his jackass of a step-father, the only person his mother ever really sees.

Deep down, they both wish that one day they can step into the light together.

_Romantic_

Their relationship is far from romantic. He doesn't shower her with gifts or call every time he says he will. She doesn't expect him to, frankly. And honestly? It doesn't matter to her.

_Sunset_

She knows that he's not a romantic person. She's fine with that. But as they sit on the sandy beach together and watch the sunset, a small voice in her head tells her that this is as romantic as it can possibly get.

_Window_

The first time he comes to her window, she refuses to let him in.

The second time, he lets himself in.

The third time, she invites him in.

They are quiet- Walter is right next door- but they sleep next to each other all night.

A soft breeze ruffles the curtains.

_Innocence_

The night when they are supposed to have sex for the first time, she can't bring herself to do it. The face of the boy from Ohio keeps coming from to the front of her mind, and she's filled with deep regret, so deep that it goes straight to her core and stays there, knawing at her. Her current boyfriend feels her shaking, so he stops and studies her face with rare concern in his eyes. She mutters something, something like a name, and buries her face in his neck, crying for her lost innocence.

_Airport_

She is going to run away from him, she decides. They had a huge fight and she's completely humiliated, so she does the most logical thing she can think of. She signs up for a foreign exchange program, buys a plane ticket that'll get her out of California as fast as possible, and heads to the airport. She refuses to let herself think of him. _This is the right decision_, she tells herself firmly, and for a moment, she almost believes it. And just as she's about to board the plane, she takes one last look around and there he is.

He's sprinting down the concourse, looking around desperately, his long legs making great strides. Her mouth falls open. _What is he doing?_ Her head screams. She ignores that stewardess asking for her ticket and instead drops it on the ground, stepping away from the boarding area. He sees her then, and is by her side in two seconds flat. She opens her mouth to say something, _anything_, but he shakes his head and speaks instead.

"Don't go."

So she doesn't.

_Roses_

She comes home from a disastrous date and sobs in the shower.

When she emerges, in a cloud of steam and regret, she finds a red rose on her pillow, drenched with unwritten words. She almost smiles, and clutches the flower to her chest as a breeze from the open window tousles her hair.

_Cats_

She's lost track of the amount of stupid jokes she's heard about her name. They irritate her to no end. It's only when her boyfriend, in between kissing her neck, mutters, "I never used to like cats," that she decides she doesn't mind being named Kat anymore.

_Cactus_

She doesn't feel very much like a cactus when he runs his hands down her sides and whispers that she is the softest thing he has ever felt.

_Now_

She is a girl who always has to have a plan. He is a boy who lives in the moment. She has issues with the unknown. He relishes in not-knowing. One day, he decides that he wouldn't mind knowing that she will always be there. One night, she decides that she can deal with living in the now, at least until he leaves her room.

_Passion_

If you would've asked her a year ago what passion was, she would've said a mixture of teenage hormones and booze. But that was a year ago. Now, as her boyfriend drags his mouth all over her body and she cries out his name, that definition had changed completely. Because no amount of hormones or alcohol could ever make her feel _this good_.

_Festive_

Her family is in the middle of their annual Christmas Eve party when he shows up on her doorstep. She steps outside alone and shuts the door behind her. "What are you doing here?" she asks, genuine surprise on her face.

He doesn't reply. Instead, he draws her close and kisses her deep and slow, just how she likes it. "Merry Christmas," he says.

Her brows furrow as she says, "And to you, too. But shouldn't you be with your family?" They've been officially together for nearly a year, but she still knows virtually nothing about his family.

He scoffs and steps away from her. "Mom's in Vegas with my step-dad. I'm here alone."

She opens her mouth awkwardly. "Oh," she says slowly. "Well, in that case…" her eyes flicker back to the party within. "…you should come inside."

He almost declines, but something in her expression makes him reconsider. "Okay," he eventually says. And then she opens to door and leads him into the festivities.

_Options_

As the end of senior year approached, they were running out of options. Neither of them had planned on their relationship becoming so serious, but the fact of it was that… well, it was serious.

But she couldn't give up Brown. She had always thought that it was an either/or situation: Brown or _Him_. As much as she cared for the latter, she knew she had no other choice but to pick the former.

He had two very different options: Stay in California with his jackass of a stepfather, or follow her.

Guess what he chose?

_Rain_

She storms out of the apartment they share and into the pouring rain. This isn't the first time they have had an explosive fight over absolutely nothing, and it certainly wouldn't be their last. The door slams blindly shut behind her as she makes her way to her beat-up car. She catches sight of herself in one of the rearview mirrors, and sees a young woman with sopping wet, stringy hair and swollen red lips. The black button down shirt she was wearing was already sticking to her like a second skin. She blinks for a second, gathering her composure. What _had_ they been fighting about? She can't even recall.

A stray raindrop lands directly in her eye, and she remembers screaming about something like him drinking straight out of the milk carton or an event equally as trivial. She pauses before opening the car door, instead glancing up towards their second floor apartment. And there he is, shirtless, and leaning over the balcony. He's studying her, she notices, with a placid expression on his face. "Well," she calls out quickly, before she can make another rash decision. "Are you going to come down here and stop me, or what?" He looks at her questioningly, and she lifts her chin a notch, as to reassure him. Then he disappears and is beside her in an instant.

"Couldn't bring yourself to leave, huh?" he murmurs in his gravelly voice, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She responds by whacking his chest. "I'm doing you a favor," she replies. "You'd never be able to find another girl who can put up with your piggish habits."

He grins, and then kisses her deeply as the rain falls in sheets around them.

_Reflection_

She hates to admit it; she thinks it makes her sound like a pathetic Disney princess, but before she met him, she never liked what she saw in the mirror.

_Clouds_

It's torture, she thinks as she stabs her walking stick into the mountainous terrain. She's in the most beautiful place she can think of, _the Rocky Mountains for God's sake_, but all she can think about is _him_. It was cowardly to leave him like this, she knows, but she's never felt this dependent on a guy before. She's only twenty years old, and she doesn't like how she feels. She doesn't like it at all.

"Almost to the top!" the leader of the mountain climbing group calls out in heavily accented English. She picks up her pace, vehemently shaking all thoughts of _him_ from her mind.

It doesn't work.

A few minutes later, and she's standing at the summit of a mountain looking all over the valleys of Colorado. But all she sees are the clouds spilling below her, in the shape of _his_ face.

_Return_

When she comes home, she kisses him so hard that he thinks his head is going to snap off his neck. They're both hotheaded and stubborn, but they're too in love to let their obduracy get in the way.

_Sad_

He's there for all the sad times, like the anniversary of her mother's sudden death. Year after year, he holds her through the night, as she refuses to cry.

_Happy_

He's there for all the happy times, too, like the day she's accepted into Brown, the day she gets her first job, and the day her first article is published. Actually, there came a time when she could not remember feeling happy without him near.

_Creation_

It is an accident. She hadn't meant to get pregnant. But it could've been worse, she decides. She and her boyfriend are both twenty-five, employed, and living together, so she figures that having a family isthe next logical step.

He doesn't leave her when she tells him. In fact, he isn't upset at all. He actually seems somewhat excited.

She has to quit her job as a journalist, but she doesn't mind as much as she thought she would've, because, in her words, her boss is"a douche".

Her sister, newly married, is ecstatic. Her father, on the other hand, is not. He still firmly believes that both of his daughters are virgins who think boys are icky.

Her boyfriend remains good throughout her entire pregnancy. He even proposes, awkwardly, and it involves a lot of hemming and hawing before he shuts up and produces a velvet box with a simple ring inside. She says yes, but not before sternly informing him that she would not be changing her name, or making him sandwiches "like a good little housewife". Her father, seeing that his daughter's boyfriend is serious, comes around.

Their son is born in the wee hours of the morning, after hours of screaming and various threats to castrate her new fiancé. The baby has very dark hair and very dark eyes, and they name him Nathaniel Hans Stratford-Verona. She tells her fiancé that she chose the name because of a famous journalist, but he knows better. (It's the also the name of his deceased father.)

They get married a year later, on the beach where they spent many hours of their high school years together. And as they say their vows, they hold their son, their creation, in their arms.

_Forever_

"Forever is a pretty long time to be with someone," he whispers suddenly during a long night.

She opens her eyes and he's staring at her. His once thick black hair is thinning and grey spots are sprinkled like pepper. He has little creases all over his face, especially around his eyes. He's still looking intensely at her, but there's a smile tugging at his lips.

"I know," she says.

He's grinning now, and he says, "So far, so good, though, right?" And she laughs out loud, and then he's kissing her and she feels like she's seventeen again, like she could just fly away.

_Memories_

When she's lying on her deathbed, her thoughts swirling around in her mind, it's a memory of her late husband she sees. And it's not even one she would've expected, like their first kiss, or their wedding, or the birth of their first child. No, it's a memory of their first trip to the beach together, during their junior year of high school, right after they'd been suspended. She sees his face, and the way he looked at her when she was screaming in the water, the sun dancing on her back. She remembers his expression, a mixture of admiration and amusement and something much, much softer than anything she had ever seen before.

It wasn't a big moment in her life, but to Kat Stratford-Verona, it means everything.

_Fin_


End file.
